Katalin Kelemen

Last week (on February 15) the Hungarian Parliament started to discuss a draft laying down the fundamental principles of the new constitution proposed by the government. It is now a main issue in public discourse in the country, but not much can be read about it in the international media. However there are some Hungarian websites offering news in other languages (for example Politics.hu and Budapest Times in English and Economia.hu in Italian).

Hungary is the only country of the former Soviet bloc that has still not approved a new Constitution after the breakdown of the Communist regime. (Another interesting but different exception is Latvia that in 1993 reinforced its pre-war Constitution, even if making several changes in it.) In addition, Hungary still has in force the first constitution of its history, the one adopted in 1949 by the Communist regime. However, the text was radically reformed in 1989 and adjusted several times during the 90s, so that almost no provision survived of the original text. (For an English translation of the Hungarian Constitution in force see the homepage of the Hungarian Constitutional Court.) The main point of criticism against this Constitution is that it had been adopted by the Communist regime and revised by a non-democratically legitimate Parliament in 1989, even if it was part of the democratic transition process. Indeed, the 1989 amendments were the result of a negotiation among the members of the Round Table Talks formed by the Communists and the emerging non-Communist political forces, and approved by the non-freely elected Parliament on October 23, the anniversary of the 1956 Revolution.

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